Playoff Beard-A-Thon!

The NHL Playoffs start tonight!  This year I’m not just growing my Playoff beard to show support to my favorite team, I’m hoping you’ll help me support the Detroit Red Wings Foundation in the Beard-A-Thon Challenge. The Red Wings Foundation supports the Red Wings School Assembly Program. What does all that mean?  The School Assembly Program visits elementary schools in Michigan. During the assembly they get introduced to hockey, encouraged to be active, and talk about exercise and healthy eating. After all that the teachers and students have a hockey shootout competition. The schools that participate get two full sets of floor hockey equipment from the Detroit Red Wings Foundation. That includes hockey sticks and goalie nets!

So I’m going to do all the itchy work and start growing out my beard. Actually I shaved all my facial hair off last week, something I haven’t done in a long time. I will still be shaving my head, but I won’t touch my beard. The rules say you can trim between rounds, but that seems to defeat the point of the whole thing. I’m going to be updating THIS site often with pictures, so you can check on the beard progress. If you go there now you see me with no facial hair, it's strange.  It looks like the minimum donation is 10 bucks, so even if you don't have money to spare check out the site and watch as I go from fresh faced youth to deranged mountain man!

April 2012 Update

Hey everyone! Every couple of months I take a break from the regular updates and talk about what is happening here at That F’ing Monkey. Brandon and I are still working on some podcast issues, although I think progress is coming along pretty well. We’ve tested our recordings and done a ton of brainstorming for content format. I hate to say we’re probably still a couple months off, but this is something that is going to happen.

The big news of course is that I’m in full baby watch mode. So I’ve got my overnight bag packed and I’m just waiting for the big day. Here is the amazing part; I actually planned ahead and That F’ing Monkey is ready too. There will be site updates while I’m gone! They are going to be a little different than what you’re used to seeing, but I’m very proud of what is going to be going up on the site.

The NHL playoffs are coming. That means playoff beards are coming. If you are planning on getting scraggily to support your team, please click the “contact us” button on the website. If we get some interested people I’ll probably do a round by round photo update like we did last year. The road to the play offs has been intense, make sure you check out Saturday’s Penguin and Flyer game; I have a feeling it is going to be brutal.

As always I appreciate anyone who takes time to visit here and read the strangeness that comes out of my head. Thank you all.

Dollar Shave Club

The illustration of me on the website is pretty much spot on. Actual photos of me have managed to sneak onto this site a few times; it would have been difficult to do the Playoff Beard Challenge without showing my face. The reason I’m talking about this, is because I shave my head. Sure, nature is doing a good job of giving me less to shave each morning, but I still have to help it out. If I don’t shave my head at least every other day the stubble starts driving me crazy. So I’m really glad I just discovered Dollar Shave Club.

If you have to shave a lot, this could be a huge money saver. I normally use the most basic Mach3 blades that I can find. That usually runs about 25 dollars for 10. Dollar Shave Club has three razor options. The twin is a dollar, sure it is three dollars when you add in shipping, but that is still five cartridges a month for three dollars. The option I just signed up for is six dollars a month for four cartridges of a four bladed razor. They also have an Executive option for nine dollars a month, but that was more razor than I wanted.

The site is apparently taking off; my blades won’t start shipping till May. That’s okay though, I had just purchased a 10 pack. I’ll need to work through those. I shave enough that this is perfect for me, check out the site and see if the deal is worth it for you.

NHL Playoffs Round 3

Here we are, Round 3. The Lightning and the Bruins have their first game tonight while the Sharks and the Canucks have their first game on Sunday. Before the playoffs had even started I had guessed that it would be Vancouver and Philly in the finals, so no matter what happens in this round we know I’m at least half wrong. This will also be the last 2011 beard update for me. With the Red Wings out there was no reason not to pull out the beard trimmer last night. Brandon is still going strong, so I’ll let him handle that update when this round is over.

Ken 5/13/11

I am sad the Red Wings lost but I don’t feel too bad. I was depressed when the series looked like a sweep, but then with each game Detroit just started winning again. Seven games in a row where one goal pretty much determined who would be the winner. It was exciting. In the end the Sharks finally closed out the series and my favorite team is heading home. There is a lot of uncertainty regarding a number of the Wing’s players and retirement, but I figure we have a few months before we hear anything concrete.  Lidstrom says we'll know by July 1st if he is coming back.  Draper and Osgood want to come back next year.

Brandon 5/13/11

The other big story this round was the sweeps. Both Boston and the Lighting swept their opponents. I think it was just karma for Boston; since last year they won the first three games and then lost the series to the Flyers. Tampa was completely unexpected though. There were times where it didn’t even look like Tampa was going to make it out of the first round. Washington is going to be taking a very serious look at their roster this summer.

How will the two sweepers do against each other? How about Shark versus whale? I know the Canucks aren’t the Whalers, but the images of their two logos look like an episode of Animal Faceoff which is kind of fun. So are you watching the games? Any predictions? Let us know what you think.

NHL Playoff Itch

Round 2 of the NHL playoffs are upon us. In fact three of the four series have already had their first game. The first round was absolutely amazing. Sure I was happy the Red Wings took care of the Coyotes so quickly but four of the series went all the way to 7 games. It was exciting stuff and I’m excited to see what else is coming.

Brandon 4/29/11

Brandon was happy last night as Tampa pulled the upset and won their first game against the Capitals. I got the disappointment of an overtime loss to the Sharks. San Jose deserved that win though, their offense was relentless last night and the score does show how lopsided that ones. Just like Rinne’s performance in net made the first Nashville/Vancouver game look close; when in reality the Canucks owned that game. But all that talk was just about game one. I’m hoping all of these series go the distance again. The Boston Philadelphia game is on today at 3. Nashville and Vancouver have their rematch tonight at 9.

Ken 4/29/11

We can’t forget about the Playoff Beard Challenge! As you can see it is still in going strong. The itch is on too, but I think I’m just about beyond that part. The Magic are out of the play offs here in Orlando, that’s good because I mentioned before they were trying to do a play off beard thing too. I had to tell a bunch of people I wasn’t doing it for the Magic. Regardless of who is moving on to round three we’ll have another beard update at the end of round 2.  I'm not sure whose beard is coming in better, but Brandon wins for better photography.  Next time I won't take my picture at work.

Playoff Beards: Round 1, 2011

It is going to be a hockey heavy week here at That F’ing Monkey. As Brandon pointed out yesterday that playoffs start this Wednesday. The hockey season is so long that it is usually broken up into three parts; the season start, post all-star game, and then playoffs. Obviously the playoffs are the most fun to watch. We will be rocking the beards this season to show support to our favorite teams.

Brandon 4/10/11

How this is going to work is pretty simple. You’ll see the starting pictures in this article. My picture was taken Monday while at a trip to Disney (had to check out the new Haunted Mansion changes). The last time I shaved was Sunday Morning. Brandon’s picture was taken Sunday. After each round of the playoffs is completed we’ll take pictures of the beard progress until our team either wins the cup or is eliminated. I’ll be representing the Red Wings and Brandon the Lightning. If you’re interested in showing your beard growing prowess and want to support another team drop me an email.

Ken 4/11/11

I realize there are probably some non-hockey versed readers out there wondering just what all this beard talk is about. The New York Islanders started the practice in the 1980s and won the Stanley Cup four times in a row. Only Montreal has a longer consecutive cup streak with 5. The Islanders rocked the beards but after that the idea just seemed to be forgotten. Ten years later, in 1995, the New Jersey Devils brought it back though. After that the flood gates were opened and the NHL firmly embraced the playoff beard. In 09 Detroit even it as part of their playoff marketing. Not all players do it of course, some don’t believe in the superstition and some just flat out can’t grow a beard. I think it’s a fun tradition through and seeing some of the normally clean cut guys turn into Grizzly Addams is always good for a laugh.

I don’t like the fact that the Orlando Magic has jumped on the playoff beard train. I have to admit I’m not a basketball fan in any sense of the word. Regardless of that, I like to see the Magic do well. I feel for them.  Orlando is a hard on its sports teams. Most Orlando residents come from somewhere else and bring their love of their own home team here with them. So while there are die hard Magic fans, they are far outnumbered by the fair-weather ones. I understand that, while I like to see Tampa Bay do well, I was born up in Detroit and stay loyal to the Wings.  So the Magic have to battle to keep the town intrested in them.  I get they want to drum up some local support, but please lay off the beards guys, leave it to the hockey players.